Twice Bitten

A few weeks ago I wrote a post from the road called When the Bug Bites, because I got sick while traveling. This post is called Twice Bitten, because I got another bug… and yes, I can’t believe it, but I’m sick again.

It’s a good thing that I’m at home this time around.

I went to the doctor last Friday for a regular check up, and I was perfectly healthy. The woman a few seats away from me in the waiting room was not healthy, and she contaminated the whole waiting room with her cold / flu virus. As soon as she sat down, I moved away from her… but I didn’t move far enough. Two days later I was really sick, and I’m still sick despite the regimen of zinc, echinacea, vitamins, and water.

I wish doctors would have two waiting rooms instead of one. One should be for healthy patients who are not sick, and then there should be a quarantined area where people who know they are sick should go sit… in an enclosed room. I know that cold germs spread rapidly and it’s extremely hard to contain contamination, but what else can be done? You shouldn’t have to sit next to someone whose face is red and puffy, their nose is running, they sneeze and cough… it’s not fair to everyone else in the office.

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The thing that happens to me when I’m really sick like this is I get delirious. I ran a fever the first few nights, and the wierdest thoughts float through my head… imagined conversations with people I haven’t spoken to in a while, thoughts that come up from the depths of my psyche, a variety of unbidden images and I feel like I’m losing my grip on reality at certain moments. It’s an “in between” state where the body has taken over everything and does not allow the mind to function in it’s usual way.

It’s very unpleasant to be so incapacitated that I can’t get up out of bed, or only with an extreme level of effort to motivate myself to get a drink of water, or get tissues (the box of tissues is in bed with me now.)

For some part of the time I have been in bed I wondered how I could turn this misfortune into something creative… but the body has been stubbornly refusing to give me relief…

In this brief moment I’m taking out of bed I wanted to say “hi” to everybody, and I’m not going down without a fight, but for right now the cold is winning…

When the Bug Bites

As I’ve mentioned on my blog over the past several months, I’ve been traveling a lot. I travel to the west coast frequently. One thing I’ve become wary of during my many trips are the sneezing, coughing and virally challenged multitudes I’m sharing my air with on the six hour plane ride from east to west coast and back again. Sometimes I wear a scarf around my neck so I can put it over my nose and mouth if someone particularly bubonic is sitting near me. Or small children, who are all bubonic, generally speaking.

But germs are microscopic. All that re-circulating air on the plane means even if Typhoid Manny is sitting ten rows away from me, his virulent strain of whatever could be wafting up my nose while I sit and unsuspectingly sip my Diet Cola beverage.

And this past Monday, on yet another plane ride from right to left, I felt a twinge of something sneaking into my lungs while I sat there, trapped in the center seat. I was sitting next to a guy whose left arm kept smacking into me as he rhymically played a video game for FOUR HOURS and a nice woman at the window seat reading from her electronic book.

By the time 48 hours had elapsed, I could feel “signs” increasing, body aches and a bit of a cough and some sneezing. I ran to the drugstore and stocked up on Zinc lozenges (known to boost the immune system and are supposed to shorten the length of a cold) and Echinacea, which is a cone flower plant extract from the Daisy family… also thought to reduce inflammation in the body and help boost the immune system.

But it was too late, I had already been infected. By Wednesday night I was really suffering. Yesterday I was so sick I could hardly get out of my hotel bed to go to the bathroom.

One thing I’ve learned to deal with (sort of) is getting sick on the road. It’s very unpleasant to not be in your own bed, but there are small advantages by having so many staff around to help you out when you’re down for the count. Just by poking my head into the hallway yesterday, the nice ladies who clean the rooms gave me an extra box of tissues. And when I ordered a bowl of soup from room service last night, the gentleman could see my state and said please call down later so I can bring you hot water for tea…

Needless to say, except for the gentleman who brought me my soup, I have not allowed anyone to enter the sick ward that is room 658. I’m holding my own at this point, and continuing to chomp zinc lozenges, Vitamin C, and chewable Echinacea tablets with the zeal of a homeopathic believer.

I’m pleased to report that while I am not better, I’m not as sick as I was yesterday. And since I’ll be in California this weekend and next week, I’m hopeful that by Sunday night this regimen will have served me well enough to get me back on my feet.

But while in my hospital… er, I mean hotel bed, I’m wondering if I should go online and buy surgical masks for the flight home?

And Another Thing!

Like the good, on-my-way-to-healthier-living doobie that I am I got up this morning and worked out at the hotel fitness center referred to in my post yesterday. I skipped the donut-or-bagel hotel breakfast, and although it is not ideal to work out on an empty stomach, I went right to my workout with the intention of treating myself to a “green” lunch.

Now, I haven’t said this on the blog before, but in the last few months I have been migrating towards vegetarianism, like an animal migrating to its winter den to hibernate there, sleepy and undernourished for a while until it comes out, and attacks the nearest moose it can get its big, sharp claws on.  But I digress.

I coyly alluded to my intentions by posting something about tofu awhile ago, and I’ve posted about cucumber salads, but this is a whole other level of commitment.

The thing is, eating healthy shouldn’t be hard. Greens, veggies and fruits should be readily available in restaurants and take-out shops and generally speaking it shouldn’t be too much to ask for these foods to be tasty.

I’m sorry to report the obvious but as a nation we would much rather eat meat. Meat on our salads, meat with our potatoes, meat with our meat and if possible, more meat please. But I wasn’t born somewhere else so I too have this meat fixation. I confess my love of fried chicken. Okay, and bacon. And BBQ. Maybe a nice char-broiled steak. (My mouth is salivating as I write this.) But these days, those foods are not sullying my body, although I do sometimes wish to be sullied, I hunker down instead and spoon an extra helping of sunflower seeds onto my rabbit food.

So I did a work out this morning and I was pretty hungry afterwards so I headed over to the Whole Foods with the intention of enjoying their salad bar. In Manhattan there is a Whole Foods in Tribeca with a phenomenal salad bar. You can get soups, salads, pizza, hot Indian food, hot Chinese food, cold Greek food, regular salads, roasted vegetables… basically a vegetarian’s dream come true. I was surprised to find the Whole Foods I went to here in California had one paltry “organic” salad greens area and that’s it.

Okay, when in Rome, I thought.

I piled my take-out box full of all-organic goodness: greens, cucumbers, cute cherry tomatoes, seeds and nuts, radishes, celery… you get the idea. When I took my salad outside and settled in at one of the tables I was prepared to enjoy my fresh food. I took the first bite and I swear the salad tasted like feet. It tasted like organically grown hippy feet, to be more precise. I’ve never had salad taste quite like that, and I’ll be very pleased if I never eat something like that again.

I picked around the salad and ate the parts I knew were okay: green peas, the cute tomatoes, sunflower seeds, and cucumbers. The rest of it was highly suspect, especially the organic celery and radishes which I believe were the foot source.

Afterward I went to the vitamin shop because I had run out of Vitamin C, but more importantly I read online that people who do not eat meat, eggs, cheese, milk for long-ish periods of time can suffer from Vitamin B12 deficiency. It turns out that our bodies don’t produce B12, and it’s not found in plant foods unless it is fortified (through some industrial process.) Normally we can get the B12 we need from meat, dairy, or eggs.

I haven’t given up eating eggs, cheese, butter, or ice cream. I have to draw the line somewhere, and I’ve drawn the line between being a vegan (someone who avoids all animal products – something I am not prepared to do) and being a “mostly” vegetarian, someone who eats eggs, cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt, and when I’m having a particularly insane craving, possibly fried chicken. I said “mostly” vegetarian so please don’t write in the comments that I’m not a “real vegetarian” or a “true vegetarian” because I’ll just agree with you. But I’ve cut out meat 99.99% of the time.

I bought the Vitamin C and a B-complex vitamin which includes B12 along with the other B vitamins and their absorption support systems (folic acid, for example) and I took that today. As I reported, I also ate the big salad for lunch, worked out, and have thusfar spent the day being a health nut.

How am I feeling, you might ask? Eh. Okay, but virtuous.

It’s unclear to me if I’ll be able to sustain this level of commitment to a vegetarian “lifestyle” (did I just say that? Oy.) but I’m willing to continue to see if it helps me maintain energy, be healthier, potentially lose weight and stave off the impending crush of old age for another day or two.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

A fallow moment

Fallow, adj: Plowed and harrowed but left unsown for a period in order to restore its fertility

As you may (or may not) have noticed, my writing productivity has slowed this month on the blog. It’s not just the blog actually, it is also in my writing, and submitting activities too.

I’ve been rejuvenating myself physically, and psychologically.

The last several months have been challenging on a few levels. I haven’t talked about it on the blog, and I likely won’t, but I feel like I’m waiting to get through this tunnel…I can see the shafts of light streaming through the opening at the end, but I haven’t emerged into full sunlight yet.

Some positives help keep me going. I’ve been working hard on my physical being. This means, for me, walking 5-6 miles a day, eating mostly vegetables, taking vitamins and combatting my insomnia.

It’s strange, but I seem to have a nearly inhuman amount of energy from this new regimen. I’m so amped up with energy from the exercise and possibly the vitamins (?) it has dampened my appetite. I’m eating only once a day.

It’s bizarre to say this, but the less I eat, the higher my energy levels get. It’s completely counter-intuitive. And yet…I’ve lost 11 pounds thusfar. I feel good, with more to go.

Also gratifying to see is my blog traffic has miraculously maintained itself pretty well even though I’ve cut back on postings. Many thanks to all of you who continue to participate in and ponder the posts here. I love the idea that a global community of writers comes to my blog, and I love hearing from all of you.

As for the rest of my life…I’m putting my energies where they need to be: being around friends, drawing on the advice of work colleagues, experts and gurus, continuing to draw on an amazing support network of people I know and care about, and pushing forward.

Thanks for listening, and reading.

EFT: It’s Calling From Inside The House!

I have an evil presence in my home. It is calling from my refrigerator right now, laughing at me. Taunting me. Daring me to eat it.

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Will I actually injest this nefarious substance in the name of … D..d.d… di…. *cough, cough,* eating healthier?

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You duped me into buying you at the Korean grocery. I saw that coy look you gave me as you sat on the shelf beside the packaged Soba noodles.

Go on, you said, I don’t cost much. Don’t you like my pretty packaging?

NO…must…not…. I thought, but my resolve was already weakening.

Ahaha, you reply, you WILL eat me and you’ll learn to like it! You want to reduce your animal protein intake right? Well you still need protein and I’m a great source.

Ugh, I answer, disgusted with myself. You’re right. I know I have to do it, for my own good.

You were smug with victory as I put you in my basket.

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All you health nut types have been eating Tofu for years. (Then again you probably drink wheat grass juice too, so there is no help for you whatsoever.)

You’ve stir fried it, you’ve put it in soups, hell you’ve even made tofu cheesecake out of it. (Gross, I say!) You and your evil minions have made Tofu a ubiquitous high protein staple, available to any innocent person walking down the isles of a local Korean grocery (and plenty of other shops; your distribution knows no bounds.)

I have purchased Extra Firm Tofu (hereafter referred to as EFT) in the hopes of frying it and maintaining enough shape (cubes?) to get a sear on it.

When I asked the lady at the Korean grocery how to prepare EFT, like do I marinate it, dump soy or oyster sauce on it, she says just cook it with whatever else I’m cooking and it will pick up the flavors of the rest of the dish.

I’m not sure how this is going to come out, but here are the ingredients I’ve got. I’m thinking of putting into this EFT dish. See, I don’t think of it as any other kind of dish since it will be contaminated by the EFT, but I’m TRYING damn it!

- EFT (god help me)

- Veggies: scallions, bok choy, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, shitake mushrooms, celery

- Soba noodles

- Sauce(s): I have oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil

- Fresh ground black pepper

- Sesame seeds?

Anybody that cooks Tofu out there, please, for the sake of all that is holy, put an encouraging comment below on how to cook this menace and make it taste good.

The future of my waistline may depend upon your kindness, stranger.